Long balls suit Villanova
Wildcats hit Final Four-record 18 3-pointers in 95-79 victory against Kansas
SAN ANTONIO — One by one, Villanova keeps winning games and getting closer to another national title. Three by three, the Wildcats kept knocking down shots, making sure Kansas wouldn’tget in their way.
Villanova made a Final Four-record 18 3-pointers Saturday night and also became the most prolific 3point shooting team in college basketball history, playing long ball to snuff out the Jayhawks early in a 95-79 victory.
Junior wingman Eric Paschall led the barrage, going 4 for 5 from 3, 10 for 11 overall, and finishing with a career-high 24 points.
But the basket was as wide as the Alamodome for pretty much everyone in a Wildcats jersey. Seven Villanova players made 3s. It shot 50 percent from behind the arc in the first half to put things out of reach — and 45 percent for the game.
“That happens sometimes when you’re a good shooting team and when you start that way,” Villanova coach Jay Wright said. “It’s hard for Kansas, it’s hard to come back. That doesn’t happen often. We’re lucky it happened tonight.”
Next up is Michigan, which will try to guard the perimeter Monday night when Villanova (35-5) goes for its second title in three seasons. Good luck with that. Nobody has had much success this season, and in what turned out to be an unexpectedly lopsided13-rebound monster game. matchup between top seeds, About 1 minute into the Kansas (31-8) certainly second half, Paschall didn’t Saturday night. drained a 3 for Villanova’s Player of the year Jalen 14th of the game, breaking a Brunson made three 3s and Final Four record first set finished with 18 points. by UNLV in 1987. Omari Spellman made Much earlier, at about three, as well, in a 15-point, the 13-minute mark of the first half, Collin Gillespie spotted up and swished for Villanova’s sixth 3 of the game, which gave it the NCAA record for 3s in a season, with 442.
VMI set that record in 2007. Very few remember that team, though, because even though the importance of the long shot has grown as the decades have passed, it’s never been thought of as a guaranteed way to win consistently.
Wright’s team is laying waste to that theory and, at times, making other teams look bad while doing it.
Saturday, the typical Villanova possession involved working the ball down low on the wing, then a skip pass across the bottom of the paint, followed by one, two or three passes around the arc until somebody got open. It usually worked. Most of the 18 makes barely skimmed the net. Villanova attempted 40 shots from 3, andonly 25 from 2.
Gillespie’s record-setter gave Villanova a 22-4 lead, and at that point, Kansas had as many turnovers as points and had taken as many timeoutsas it had field goals.
Devonte Graham, the senior guard who has been the glue in this Final Four season, led Kansas with 23 points. Malik Newman, who had stepped up in the postseason, had 21.